Consulting firms are full of great podcast content, use it.
Shawn Corrigan
Senior Advisor | Political Risk & Government Relations | Creative Content & Storytelling | Indonesia & Southeast Asia
A branded podcast, when done properly, can be a powerful tool to amplify brand awareness for your consulting firm.
As a consulting firm, your team likely is full of specialized insights, expert analysis and fresh ideas. You undoubtedly have an existing knowledge base and that’s an invaluable asset that could be tapped through a branded podcast.
When done well, a branded podcast can:
Strengthen your firm’s thought leadership in your market, industry and beyond.
Below are some things that have worked based on our own experience and for our clients.
1. “What would my client or potential client want to know or find useful?”
Identify information or insights that your target audience will find valuable. Then, produce the highest quality content around that.
The easiest way to begin producing your first episode is by interviewing your own internal experts to utilize and share your internal knowledge base. If you are making the podcast alone, you can use a monologue format and answer questions from social media. This will not only help you answer the questions that the audience is interested in, but also keep the episode engaging as it’s similar to Q&A.
For example, back in 2017 when I started my first podcast as a political risk consultant, we saw that many potential clients were wondering about how a cabinet reshuffle in Indonesia might impact their businesses. So we produced insightful episodes and very detailed analysis on the political changes and what the outlook would be. The episode was of the highest quality insights, something that a client would pay for, but we published it for free. (We received client work based on this episode a month later)
2. Put out the best content you can
Withholding your best content in hopes that the audience will contact you for more is very ineffective and so 2000’s. No one wants to take the time to listen to your episode just to be forced to contact you for the full details later. That will lead to disappointment and will hurt your brand, not amplify it!
Because you want to attract the attention of your audience, you need to provide the most insightful podcast that you can. New clients will still come even with free content because they will still need analysis specific to their industry, issue or business plans. But by putting out your best info, you are making people aware that you know your stuff.
For the listener’s sake, try and use the highest quality audio that you can. At the end of the day, use what you have, but better audio is helpful. If possible, do some basic editing to your episodes to clean up the sound quality and dead spaces. But if you can’t, post it anyway and improve as you go.
3. Discuss thematic, relevant, “evergreen” or on-demand issues that can help your existing clients and potential clients
Curate evergreen topics as backup episodes to use for holidays and other instances where you and your team are unable to record. Evergreen episodes are ones that are not time-sensitive and can be recorded ahead of time and released when you need time off or are unable to record.
Make sure that the evergreen content isn’t just filler content, though; every episode counts for your audience so don’t waste their time! Avoid producing “best of” episodes for days when you can’t record as they are almost always boring and less useful. I personally can’t stand them to be frank and always skip those episodes.
4. Avoid talking about your brand itself or your products
No one cares or wants to listen to you talk about your firm. Instead, as mentioned before, just go for the best information that you can provide so the listener can obtain some value out of it. For example, consulting firms can provide insights on what have been some of the biggest issues for your past clients and how they were overcome. And yes, there are ways to do this without breaking confidentiality agreements, I’ve done it.
5. Don’t overthink every episode!
I used to overthink every episode when I started, and looking back, it was a waste of my time and energy. You and your team obviously have a strong knowledge base–the audience will find that valuable so just share it as best you can and keep producing. Improve as you go. Content comes first, production second.
Don’t record several episodes and hold off on releasing them hoping you will redo them before release. I’ve seen this so many times and in the end, none of the episodes are released and the firm wasted time and still doesn’t have a branded podcast. I’m warning you, don’t do it!
6. Keep it casual and to the point
Don’t use your insider jargon. Make the episodes easy to understand, don’t bother trying to show off. The goal of the podcast is to build reputation by providing useful information, not being cool.
7. Your episodes can be as long as it needs to be… if the content is great
“Great” is subjective, obviously. In this context, refer to my first point: just make sure that the episodes are full of information or analysis that your audience will find insightful. For most cases, shorter is better–I suggest aiming for under 30 minutes per episode. Having that deadline will help you be more concise and not take up too much of your time (FYI, 15-minute episodes have also worked wonders for some firms). If you are unsure what is the best duration for you, just start and publish the episodes and then get listener feedback and adjust based on that.
Aim for a six-month season with episodes releasing at least either weekly or bi-weekly. Having routine episode releases allows listeners to develop listening habits and to know when and what days they should expect new episodes. Routine releases also show potential listeners that you are committed when they view your podcast feed and are more likely to subscribe/follow you.
8. Most importantly: just start recording, producing, and publishing!
I love producing narrative audio stories but also love the challenge of producing branded, interview-based podcasts. I’m always happy to share what I’ve learned along the way so feel free to reach out anytime!
Shawn Corrigan is the CEO of In-depth Creative, independent podcast production company and business-to-business content consulting company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. We produce podcasts in English and Indonesian. From audio documentaries to heart-warming audio dramas, we strive for independent thinking, intelligent stories, nuanced analysis, and unbound creativity. Learn more here
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